


Tall Order

by slamncram (GettheSalt)



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Post-The Hub
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-23
Updated: 2017-03-23
Packaged: 2018-10-06 00:02:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10320623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GettheSalt/pseuds/slamncram
Summary: Leo had said "He told me to take care of you, too, and that's exactly what I'm going to do" and thought that it was plain and simple. The look on Grant's face had been anything but, and it's haunted him ever since that warehouse.





	

Leo had known specialists before Grant Ward. A person didn’t work in Sci-Ops and not come across a specialist or two in their time. And what that time had taught Leo was that, in general, specialists were all the same brash, bull-headed, stubborn, egotistical, loud, abrasive jackholes you could ever hope to find. They could really ruin your day, and sometimes, that could make it feel like they were ruining your life.

That hadn’t really changed when he’d met Grant, but there was no denying - at least not to himself, and not to Jemma, who knew him so well - that for a few seconds, he’d dared to hope  _this one_ would be different.

Not that Grant met the requirements provided by  _every other_ specialist Leo had ever met, but he certainly lived up to the bull-headed, stubborn, and abrasive qualities without issue. On their second mission, Leo had been about ready to jump across the worktable at him, in the vain hope that the surprise might actually shut the guy up.

It was by the end of that mission that Leo had quietly realized that, maybe, he’d been wrong about this one. 

Of course, admitting that to himself hadn’t made it any easier. The days and weeks that followed only made it worse. For every stubborn moment Grant had, he had at least another that was charming. He wasn’t as idiotic as Leo had originally painted him, there was an intelligence there that Leo envied. By the time they’d come back from South Ossetia - whole and intact, no thanks to the team at the Hub - any resistance Leo had been trying to hold up felt like it was melting away into nothing.

How were you supposed to fight against something that had been trying to make you weak from the very first moment?

Lying in his bunk that night, Leo had tossed, and turned, thinking over every moment of their mission, thinking over every second between the two of them, from annoyance to awe. His brain wouldn’t let him sleep, and his heart…

The Bus was quiet when he opened his bunk door, leaning out into the common area. That made sense. It was half past 2 in the morning, and  _someone_ might be up, but they wouldn’t be in this space. The six of them were pretty good about respecting each other’s need to sleep. Not that every one of them were sleeping. Leo certainly hadn’t been, and by the muted glow from inside Grant’s bunk, he wasn’t either.

Careful, Leo made his way to that bunk, glancing over his shoulder, guilty, like someone might be watching him, before he tapped his fingers against the edge in a quick, quiet knock. Loud enough, though, that Grant heard it, because there was the sound of shuffling inside, and then the door slid back quietly.

“Can’t sleep.” Leo murmured in answer to Grant’s questioning frown. “Saw the light on, wondered if you wouldn’t mind…”

Specialists didn’t like company. They were the  _lone wolf_  kind, and Grant himself had made known that he preferred to work alone.

That was why, when Grant stepped aside and waved him into his bunk, Leo hesitated. That couldn’t be right. Grant was supposed to be annoyed for the intrusion, shut the door in his face. Yes, that expectation went against everything Leo was feeling in his gut after South Ossetia, but…

Moving before Grant changed his mind, Leo stepped over the threshold and sat himself down at the foot of Grant’s bunk, watching while he closed the door again. He was out of his mission clothes, and looked more at ease than Leo had ever seen him, black track pants and a battered looking white tee having replaced them. Somehow, he still looked every inch put together. It made Leo feel a little self-conscious about his blue plaid pants and thin old hoodie, but there was nothing to be done for it.

Grant sat down across from him, shifting his tablet to the shelf next to his bunk. “Something about the mission bothering you?”

“No.” Leo answered, immediately, then hesitated. “Yes.”

This was dangerous. The things that were bothering him didn’t have to remain within the confines of the mission, and that was what made them so lethal. The feelings that Leo had been struggling with, trying to keep locked away, were straining to feed on everything that had transpired between them. He knew if they did, they would be unstoppable. They would roll through him and take hold in every corner, immovable and firm.

That thought was terrifying.

“Which is it?” Grant asked. Before, Leo would have expected that to be barked, layered with annoyance and impatience. Now, he knew better, and when he looked over at Grant and saw the smile on his face, he felt his grip on those feelings slip for a second.

“It’s, uh… It’s just…” Still that patient smile. It was 2:30 in the morning. He should be exasperated. “I can’t stop thinking about the way you were looking at me, when I said I would be taking care of you, too. You looked… It was like you didn’t believe it, that someone would do that, and even if it  _was_  what Coulson expected, I need, well, I wanted you to know, I would do it anyway. I will, I mean.” Leo pulled up a smile, not quite looking at Grant, trying not to feel the way his control was slipping through his fingers, a little more every second. “You just seemed… lost.”

Grant was silent, on his side of the bed. Leo was too afraid to put his eyes on him, but that silence didn’t feel  _good_. It felt like the calm before the storm. It felt like the promise of a door shutting, desperation to keep something at bay. To keep  _Leo_ at bay.

“I think I was a little confused.” Grant finally said, his voice at quiet as Leo’s. “You know… I’m a specialist. Things like that? We don’t hear them, we just say them to other people.” There was a raw quality to Grant’s tone that had Leo looking at him, trying hard to see what he was thinking. There was little betrayal on his face, not like there had been, back in that warehouse. Everything was in his voice, weight and confusion and maybe something like fear. “So, when you stood there and told me you were going to take care of me? You’re the first person that’s done that.”

Leo knew he was staring, eyebrows furrowed, but he couldn’t help that. He remembered what had happened with the berzerker staff, and how Skye had leaned in, her voice low, and asked if it had to do with his brother. There was darkness in Grant’s past, but that seemed like a SHIELD prerequisite. Everyone Leo had ever worked with, save Jemma, had a shadow in their past that had shaped them. But to have not heard, or not in recent memory, that someone would take care of you?

“That’s not a pity play. That’s just how it is. Not what I’m used to.” Grant was shutting down. His voice was losing that open quality, like Leo’s lack of verbal response had been a sign to cage up. He was showing too much. “Took me off guard, is–”

Leo didn’t remember the decision to move from his side of the bunk. He just remembered one second he was sitting, watching Grant firmly shut door after door, and the next he was shifting, moving into Grant’s space and wrapping his arms around his neck in a fierce hug, leaning into him with his eyes closed and his cheek brushing Grant’s hair.

“I meant it. I still mean it. I know maybe you don’t believe that, but I’d like to try and make you.”

Grant was still under him, and for a second, Leo was sure that  _this_ would be where the stereotypical specialist behaviours came out, pushing him off and kicking him out. Instead, he felt Grant’s arms wrap around his middle, tight, pulling him in the rest of the way.

“That’s a tall order for one person to fill.”

“Yeah, well,” Leo huffed a laugh. “You haven’t seen anything like me, yet.”

 


End file.
